SMU

ASSIGNMENT
SEMESTER – 2
MB0049

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

SUBMITTED BY:
Rahul Jain
MBA
ROLL NO:-511031700
Q1. Define project management, resource, process and project cycle. Explain the life-cycle
of a project.

Ans. Project – A project is a set of activities which are networked in and order and aimed
towards achieving the goals of a project. Upon the completion of all the activities the goals of
the project would have been achieved. A project is undertaken to achieve a purpose.

Management – Management is the technique of understanding the problems, needs and

controlling the use of resources, such as cost, time, manpower, materials, etc.

Project management – It is an art of controlling the cost, time, manpower, and hardware and
software resources involved in a project.

Project Cycle – A project cycle basically consists of the various activities of operations,
resources and the limitations imposed on them.

Process – A process is part of the project which consists of simple and routine instructions to
achieve a desired result of any activity of the project. A process is responsible to bring about the
changes in the input fed to the process and gives out desired outputs as results of the process.

Resource – It refers to manpower, machinery, money and materials required in the project.

The Project Life-Cycle

A life cycle of a project consists of -

a) Understanding the scope of the project,

b) Objectives of the project,

c) Formulation and planning various activities,

d) Project execution and

e) Project monitoring and control the project resources.

Phases of Project Management Life Cycle

The various phases in project management life cycle are –

• Analysis and evaluation

• Marketing
• Design
• Inspecting, testing and delivery
• Post completion analysis

Analysis and Evaluation Phase

It starts with receiving a request to analyze the problem from the customer. The project manager
conducts the analysis of the problem and submits a detailed report to the top management. The
report should consist of what the problem is, ways of solving the problem, the objectives to be
achieved, and the success rate of achieving the goal.

Marketing Phase

A project proposal is prepared by a group of people including the project manager. This
proposal has to contain the strategies adopted to market the product to the customers.

Design Phase

Inputs received

• Project feasibility study

• Preliminary project evaluation
• Project proposal
• Customer interviews

Outputs produced

• System design specification

• Program Functional specification
• Program design specification
• Project plan

Inspecting, Testing and Delivery Phase

• During this phase, the project team works under the guidance of the project manager.
• The project manager has to ensure that the team working under him, implements the project
designs accurately.
• The project has to be tracked or monitored through its cost, manpower and schedule.
• Managing the customer
• Marketing the future work
• Perform quality control work

Post Completion Analysis Phase

• The staff performance has to be evaluated

• Document the lessons from the project
• Project feedback analysis
• Project execution report
• Analysis of the problems encountered during the project

Q2. What are the roles and responsibilities of a project manager?

Ans. Roles and Responsibilities of a Project Manager:-

The Manager in a project management are the individuals and the organizations.

i. That is actively involved in the project

ii. Whose interests may be affected (positively or negatively) by the outcome (success or failure)
of the project.

iii. Exert influence over the project and its results

iv. Players are also called “stakeholders” of the project

v. Project manager- the individual responsible for managing the project

vi. Customer- the individual or organization that will use the product- the end result of the
project.

vii. Performing organization- the enterprise whose employees are most directly involved in
doing the work of the project.

viii. Sponsor-the individual or group within or external to the performing organization that funds
the project.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Project Manager

There are number of projects which an organization works on. It is not possible for one
individual to manage all the projects. There is a team of managers who manage the projects.
There may be different teams working on different projects. An experienced project manager
and his team may manage more than one project at a time. The project team is responsible for
ensuring that the project upon completion shall deliver the gain in the business for which it is
intended for. The project team has to properly coordinate with each other working on different
aspects of the project. The team members are responsible for the completion of the project as per
the plans of the project.

Q3. Explain the various steps in the identification process of a project. What are the tools
used in project planning?

Ans. The identification process:-

The main steps in the identification process of any project are:

i. Identify initial requirements.

ii. Validate them against the project objective.

iii. Identify the criteria for assessing the success of both the final project product and the process
used to create it. Ex: quality objectives, quantitative requirements for the project.

iv. Identify the framework of the solution

v. Prepare a template of the frame work of solution to illustrate the project feasibility.

vi. Prepare relevant charts to demonstrate the techniques of executing the project and its
different stages.
 vii. Prepare a proper project schema of achieving the defined business requirements for the
project.

viii. Identify training requirement

ix. Make a list of the training program necessary for the personnel working on the project.

x. Identify the training needs of the individuals working in various functions responsible in the
project.

xi. Prepare a training plan and a training calendar.

xii. Assess the capabilities and skills of all those identified as part of the project organization

Planning Tools: The tools which may be necessary for coordinating a project successfully are
the following:

Project organization

P Prorocess S skills and activities

Prepare an outline project justification, plan and project budget
Selection and briefing of the project team, assigning roles and organization
Initiation
Feasibility study- risk and key success factors
Project definition and project plan
P Planning
Communicate to the team
Allocating and monitoring the work and cost
Ensuring work and team cohesion
E Execution
Reporting progress
Monitoring progress and managing changes
C Control
Helping the team to solve project problems
Satisfactory delivery
C Close
Compiling lessons from project experience

Project structure

Development plan, project tracking and oversight

Project Key personnel – Identify those business areas that are within the scope or directly
interface with the scope boundary and list them in the “Business area” column of the project
assignment worksheet

Identify the key personnel for each area and list them in the “Person” column of the project
assignment worksheet.

Project management team

It is a senior management team, which will be accountable for the project.

• Identify project sponsor, client representative and technical representative.

• Stage managers- who will plan and manage the project on a day-to-day basis for this stage
• Project coordinators- client coordinator and technical coordinator
• Clearly define these coordination, control activities and identify the brief suitable personnel
to carry them out

Key stakeholders

Identify management level personnel who are critical to the success of the project. Document
the responsibilities of stakeholders

Stage teams

Identify appropriate personnel required for the stage, define the team structure and appoint team
leaders.Document the time commitment and responsibilities to be performed by the team
members.
Key resources

Individuals assigned to a key resource role may work towards gathering “Business key
resources” and “Technical key resources”. They are project coordinators and team invitees.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The entire process of a project may be considered to be made up on number of sub process
placed in different stage called the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

A typical example of a work breakdown structure of a recruitment process is indicated below:

This is the technique to analyze the content of work and cost by breaking it down into its
component parts.

Project key stages form the highest level of the WBS, which is then used to show the details at
the lower levels of the project. Each key stage comprises many tasks identified at the start of
planning and later this list will have to be validated.

WBS is produced by Identifying the key elements, breaking each element down into component
parts and continuing to breakdown until manageable work packages have been identified. These
can then be allocated to the appropriate person.The WBS does not show dependencies other than
a grouping under the key stages. It is not time based- there is no timescale o the drawing.

Task duration

Identifying lead and lag times helps in working out task duration.

Q4. What is Risk Management? How can risks be prioritized?

Ans. Risk Management:-

There is mutual benefit for corporate and major information systems project teams and many of
the programs as a result of the information exchange generated by the Project Management
Reviews.
 Corporate and major information systems are reviewed from their inception to retirement, i.e.,
throughout the Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) phases of Identification,
Selection, Control, and Evaluate.

Several of the current and future corporate and major information systems initiatives have been
identified in the Departmental Information Architecture Program guidance series and in the
Corporate Systems Information Architecture (CSIA) document.

The templates serve as a means of standardizing the reporting requirements and enabling a
common set of criteria for evaluating the health and progress of the Department’s corporate and
major information systems. Presenters may choose to develop their own set of slides as long as
the requested information is covered.

Performance measurements are used in project management and quality processes to determine
and communicate status and accomplishments measured against specific objectives, schedules,
and milestones. These measurements extend to include delivery of desired products and
services.

There are two things one can do to manage risk. The first is to take action to reduce (or partially
reduce) the likelihood of the risk occurring. For example, some projects that work on process
improvement make their deadlines earlier and increase their efforts. Second, we can take action
to reduce the impact if the risk does occur. Sometimes this is an action taken prior to the crisis,
such as the creation of a simulator to use for testing if the hardware is late.

You might decide to rerun the complete risk process if significant changes have occurred on the
project. Significant changes might include the addition of new features, the changing of the
target platform, or a change in project team members. Many people incorporate risk review into
other regularly schedule project reviews.

Risk Priorities:-

The first step in risk analysis is to make each risk item more specific. Risks such as, “Lack of
Management buy-in,” and “people might leave,” are a little ambiguous. In these cases the group
might decide to split the risk into smaller specific risks, such as, “manager Jane decides that the
project is not beneficial,” “Database expert might leave,” and “Webmaster might get pulled off
the project.”

The next step is to set priorities and determine where to focus risk mitigation efforts. Some of
the identified risks are unlikely to occur, and others might not be serious enough to worry about.
During the analysis, discuss with the team members, each risk item to understand how
devastating it would be if it did occur, and how likely it is to occur. For example, if you had a
risk of a key person leaving, you might decide that it would have a large impact on the project,
but that it is not very likely.

In the process below, we have the group agree on how likely it thinks each risk item is to occur,
using a simple scale from 1 to 10 (where 1 is very unlikely and 10 is very likely). The group
then rates how serious the impact would be if the risk did occur, using a simple scale from 1 to
10 (where 1 is little impact and 10 is very large). To use this numbering scheme, first pick out
the items that rate 1 and 10, respectively. Then rate the other items relative to these boundaries.
To determine the priority of each risk item, calculate the product of the two values, likelihood
and impact. This priority scheme helps push the big risks to the top of the list, and the small
risks to the bottom. It is a usual practice to analyze risk either by sensitivity analysis or by
probabilistic analysis.

In sensitivity analysis a study is done to analyse the changes in the variable values because of a
change in one or more of the decision criteria.

In the probability analysis, the frequency of a particular event occurring is determined, based on
which it average weighted average value is calculated.

Each outcome of an event resulting in a risk situation in a risk analysis process is expressed as a
probability. Risk analysis can be performed by calculating the expected value of each alternative
and selecting the best alternative.

Ex : Now that the group has assigned a priority to each risk, it is ready to select the items to
mange. Some projects select a subset to take action upon, while others choose to work on all of
the items. To get started, you might select the top 3 risks, or the top 20%, based on the priority
calculation.

Q5. What is Project Management Knowledge Areas? Explain briefly PMIS.

Ans. Project Management Knowledge Area:-

Knowledge is the most powerful mover of the Wheels of progress. K factor is an index of the
extent to which one can manage today with yesterdays knowledge content and also the extent to
which today’s knowledge will be used tomorrow. This would render the development process
more productive. The K-factor of course undergoes correction through obsolescence – since
changes are now phenomenal – but so are the opportunities for juniors to access information
from new knowledge bases .Seniority is no more an automated scale for knowledge. It is
important for leaders to recognize the knowledge potential of the younger members. IT is
equally important for younger members not to suppress their knowledge potential from its
application. Further as age and experience advance further wisdom gains but knowledge is lost
until it is updated and utilized. It is the task of every team members to maximize the K-factor in
all directions.

Project Management Information System (PMIS)

A information systems is mainly aimed at providing the management at different levels with
information related to the system of the organization. It helps in maintaining a discipline in the
system. A system is prone to malfunctions if not properly maintained. An information system
dealing with project management tasks is the project management information system. It helps
in decision making in arriving at optimum allocation of resources. The information systems are
based on a database of the organization. A project management information system also holds
schedule, scope changes, risk assessment and actual results. Usual information systems are not
designed for projects. Normal information systems tell managers if they are working within the
scope of the budget.

The information is communicated to managers at different levels of the organization depending

upon the need. Upper managers need to know information on all projects regarding progress,
problems, resource usage, costs and project goals. This information helps them take decisions on
the project. They should review the projects at each milestone and arrive at appropriate decision.
Project manager and department managers need to see each project schedule, priority and use of
resources to determine the most efficient use across the organization. Project team members
need to see schedule, task lists and specification so that they know what needs to be done next.

The four major aspects of a PMIS are –

a) Provide information to the major stakeholders i.e. the right information at the right time.

b) Assist the team members, stakeholders, managers with necessary information and summary
of the information shared to the higher level managers.

c) Assists the managers in doing what if analyses about project staffing, proposed staffing
changes and total allocation of resources.

d) Help organizational learning by helping the members of the organization learn about project
management.

Q6. List out the macro issues in project management and explain each.

Ans. Macro issues:-

a) Evolving Key Success Factors (KSF) Upfront: In order to provide complete stability to
fulfillment of goals, one needs to constantly evaluate from time to time , the consideration of
what will constitute the success of completing a project and assessing its success before
completion. The KSF should be evolved based on a basic consensus document (BCD). KSF will
also provide an input to effective exit strategy (EES). Exit here does not mean exit from the
project but from any of the drilled down elemental activities which may prove to be hurdles
rather than contributors. Broad level of KSF should be available at the conceptual stage and
should be firmed up and detailed out during the planning stage. The easiest way would be for the
team to evaluate each step for chances of success on a scale of ten. KSF should be available to
the management duly approved by the project manager before execution and control stages. KSF
rides above normal consideration of time and cost – at the levels encompassing client
expectation and management perception – time and cost come into play as subservient to these
major goals.

b) Empowerment Title (ET) – ET reflects the relative importance of members of the

organization at three levels:

i) Team members empowered to work within limits of their respective allocated responsibilities
– the major change from bureaucratic systems is an expectation from these members to innovate
and contribute to time and cost.

ii) Group leaders are empowered additionally to act independently towards client expectation
and are also vested with some limited financial powers.

iii) Managers are empowered further to act independently but to maintain a scientific balance
among time, cost, expectation and perception, apart from being a virtual advisor to the top
management.

c) Partnering Decision Making (PDM) – PDM is a substitute to monitoring and control. A

senior with a better decision making process will work closely with the project managers as well
as members to plan what best can be done to manage the future better from past experience. The
key here is the active participation of members in the decision making process. The ownership is
distributed among all irrespective of levels – the term equally should be a\voided here since
ownership is not quantifiable. The right feeling of ownership is important.

This step is most difficult since junior members have to respond and resist to being pushed
through sheer innovation and performance – this is how future leaders would emerge. The PDM
process is made scientific through:

i) Earned value management system (EVMS)

ii) Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS)

iii) Budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP)

iv) Actual cost of work performed (ACWP)

d) Management By Exception (MBE) – “No news is good news”. If a member wants help
he or she locates a source and proposed to the manager only if such help is not accessible for
free. Similarly, a member should believe that a team leaders silence is a sign of approval and
should not provoke comments through excessive seeking of opinions. In short leave people
alone and let situation perform the demanding act. The bend limit of MBE can be evolved
depending on the sensitivity of the nature and size of the project. MBE provides and facilitates
better implementation of effectiveness of empowerment titles .MBE is more important since
organizations are moving toward multi-skilled functioning even at junior most levels.